Hi,
I have a dataset of stock returns each month. For each month, I'd like to
sort the stocks into quintiles. What I'd really like to do is something
like:
sort date
by date: xtile newvar = ret, nq(5)
However, Stata doesn't let me combine "xtile" with "by". I can obviously get
around this by looping through the dates, but this is time-consuming. In
many other applications, I can use "by" to save on a loop (e.g. sort date,
by date: egen newvar = mean(ret)) but I can't seem to use it here. Does
anyone know of a more efficient way to generate my quintiles per month?
Thanks, Yvonne
_________________________________________________________________
Live Search Maps – find all the local information you need, right when you
need it. http://maps.live.com/?icid=hmtag2&FORM=MGAC01
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/